The Darkness Arrives
by SmartyMcSmartle
Summary: The flock's world goes black. They immediately suspect it's the White coats. But who are the evil scientists, really? This is a sequel to "A New Flock". The story is better than the summary. Just read it!
1. I Find Out the Dark Doesn't Affect Me

**A/N: Hey! Sequel to ****_A New Flock_**** has arrived! It's probably going to be much more dismal and darker than ****_A New Flock_**** was. Piper and Jason are going to have a more prominent role in this one. Hope you like ****_The Dark Ages_****! **

**Disclaimer (only once for the whole story): If I had the rights to Percy Jackson or Maximum Ride, I would've messed everything up. Thank the Gods that I do ****_not_**** own the rights to either.**

**Thanks, faithful readers!**

**-Smarty**

Chapter 1 - I Find Out the Dark Doesn't Affect Me

Piper POV

I was really happy that Prometheus had stolen fire from the gods and gave it to human kind. I mean, eternal damnation to save the human race? He rocks. And we wouldn't have survived now that the world had gone completely black. I mean, no light, could not see the Sun, blinding, blackness. Of course, there were torches that were lit. But it was scary to have one moment be a cloudless, regular day (for a demi-god, anyways), and the next moment not being able to see three inches in front of your face when you were outside and you knew it was one o'clock in the afternoon.

Luckily, there were extra torches being lit within the next twenty or so seconds. Every half-blood in the camp got a torch and a box of matches. Some of the campers had flashlights out and could see better than anyone else. They saved their torches to be used in case they didn't have any battery life in their flashlights anymore.

There were tons of kids screaming and running around asking someone if they could borrow their torch until they got another one. Most of the half-bloods that were trying to be generous and gave their torches to somebody got left behind in the darkness. I was fortunately not one of those suckered into getting their light source taken away for at least another day or so, while the counselors tried to make more torches as the time went on.

Leo, on the other hand, was easily making enough fire so he could read his book without any trouble from the darkness. He was a lucky boy, being able to summon fire at his fingertips.

The funny thing was, I could now easily see in the dark, once my eyes adjusted a little. I blew out my torch. I could still see fine, although I knew the light around me shouldn't have been enough light for me to see as well as I did. Looking around, I saw Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Jason looking around, seeming as confused as I was. Our eyes all met and Annabeth nodded towards the forest. We all ran there as fast as we could possibly manage while dodging all the other campers that probably couldn't see as well as we could in the dark.

"Is it just me, or can we all..." I started.

"See exceptionally well in the dark? I think that's something we got with the avian DNA, Piper." replied Jason. "We should try and find Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy or Angel and see if this is part of becoming two percent bird."

We all agreed to split into two groups and find the rest of the flock. The boys were in one group and the girls were in the other. We split up and started searching for anybody that could give us a clue. After a while, I looked up and I spotted what I thought was Nudge flying up in the air, looking down at the camp. I poked Thalia and Annabeth and pointed to the sky. We took a running start and flew up to where Nudge was in the air.

"Nudge!" I yelled.

"Oh! Hi guys! How are you? I mean, other than that the world has gone black and everybody's running around and screaming. I'm awesome. I wish that colors were easier to see though. I think..."

"NUDGE!" I yelled. I swear, everybody looked up and started asking stuff like "Did you hear that?" or "What was that?" Then I realized that this far up, I shouldn't of been able to hear the rest of the half-bloods down there talking, unless they were screaming. "We have some questions..."

"About fashion? Because I can answer your questions about fashion, although you should know them, seeing that your the head counselor of our cabin..."

"No, it's about the powers we acquired when we got wings. Can we see better in the dark?" Annabeth asked.

"Ya, and you can see farther in the daytime, and hear stuff from farther away..." Nudge started.

"I already knew the last two!" Annabeth snapped.

"I didn't!" Thalia and I protested at the same time. We glanced at each other.

"Oh, and you'll all evolve and get more powers as time goes on, from ones the White coats gave you to ones they didn't intend happening. Like how I can pull metal towards me. The White coats..." Nudge started.

"What?" I asked. "We... get more powers over time?" Annabeth and Thalia's faces looked pale white. I guess my face looked like that, too. I was honestly completely shocked. How do we evolve?

"Yeah. It's pretty weird, knowing that you're evolving while your alive. It's creepy." Max said, flying over to us with Percy and Jason coming in behind her. "I just explained it to Percy and Jason."

I looked over at them. They looked kinda dazed. "Does it hurt, getting knew powers?"

"No, not really. Sometimes you feel a little sick before you get them, and that's a little uncomfortable. But pain? Nonexistent... so far." Max explained.

"But how do we know when..." I started. Then my jaw dropped.

"What?" asked Max. I pointed behind her. There were thousands upon thousands of evil looking pigeons coming at us.


	2. I Hit Evil Birds with Frying Pans

Chapter 2 - I Hit Evil Birds with Frying Pans

Percy POV

"Not again!" I groaned. I remembered these birds from when I was thirteen and in my second year of Camp Half-Blood. What were they called? I heard Annabeth whispering to Max about what had happened that day.

"Stymphalian birds..." Annabeth was saying. Oh, right. "But these aren't exactly the birds." That sucks. Well, we knew that they didn't like bad music and upon listening to it, they would go crazy and would be easier to shoot down. Unfortunately, there were three things that were different then that didn't apply to us now; one: we didn't have a radio; two: it was completely, totally, and utterly dark, and the Flock were the only ones who could see in the dark without carrying torches and three: these weren't even the birds we had already fought. I felt my pocket. Riptide wasn't there.

I was officially screwed.

_Thwack!_ I saw a bird fall down in front of me, it's wing broken.I looked up.

Maybe not.

Jason POV

Max had flew back to the kitchen and came back in less than thirty seconds. Guess what she was holding? Frying pans, cooking pots, wooden spoons and spatula's, and pretty much any weapon kitchen utensil that we could use as weapons. _Awesome._ Max handed me a frying pan and a wooden ladle. I flew right towards the birds and hit one in the wing. Their was a satisfying crack and the bird started to fall. I saw Percy look up. He smiled mischievously and asked "Where?" I pointed to Max. I saw him fly over as Max handed out the last pot. I din't see anymore after that, because the Stymphalian bird look-a-likes were closing in on me.

It took awhile for the campers to catch on. I mean, I guess they couldn't see us, but _come on._ There were gigantic evil pigeons falling to their deaths on the ground. Once I was done with the first round (which took me about five minutes), I looked down to see how everybody down there was fairing. The only half-bloods that were fighting where the ones that were there for more than a year. Which, for Camp Half-Blood, is a little less than a third of the campers. Everyone else looked stunned and tried to look up to see what was happening as the birds kept falling from the sky.

I also saw Percy swooping around telling everyone what was happening. Everyone who he told started to fight, too.

I looked back up and I saw another swarm of the demon birds coming towards me. I raised my frying pan and looked down one last time. Percy had finished and put his hand in his pocket again. He got out Riptide and soared right back up. We started to pound down on the birds. It was going to be a long day (night?).

Thalia POV

We finished the birds off hours later. I was thinking about the nursery rhyme "Peas porridge hot", but was replacing _peas_ with _pigeons_. I was sore, had scratches and pecks in my skin and I was ridiculously tired. But, I was satisfied, knowing that even though my wings were completely weird, they had done something good for other people. I looked down and saw Apollo's cabin finishing off the last of the birds as they went _poof!_ into yellow dust. People should change the saying _raining cats and dogs_ to _raining evil demon pigeons_.

I touched down in front of Artemis's cabin where the rest of the hunters were staying for now. I had no idea when we would get back out there to fight more monsters. The funny thing is, monster attacks were seriously low this summer. The only time we encountered monsters is when we were looking for Percy and Annabeth. How strange. I began to wonder why it was that the monsters had attacked the Flock. There was definitely something strange going on, but my mind couldn't grasp it at the time. I prayed to Artemis. _Lady Artemis, please guide me through these Dark Ages and let me find the demonic person who would try such a thing as make the world dark. Let me conquer them in battle, and let the world be shed in light, for we cannot see the sun, the moon, or the stars._ I hoped that through these times, Artemis would get my prayer. I stepped inside my cabin.

Jason POV

We held a counsel that night in the recreation room in the Big House. All the head counselors were there. After we checked up to make sure that nobody had died, the Flock explained what had happened. We discussed how we would proceed with the Prophecy. Obviously, we had to make a quest to find out who was doing this and then to shut them down. We knew that they could make things that could pass through our magical borders. What else could they do?

Everybody agreed that the demigods who would go on the quest had to be part of the Flock. The argument about who should go lasted hours. But after a while, Annabeth butted in, asking an intelligent question. "Who should go? How about we figure out how many demigods should go, before we decide _who._" I had to say, she had a good point.

"Maybe the _whole_ flock is destined to go. That, or none of them. I mean, it doesn't say anything about there being a quest, but it does mentions eleven campers. There are eleven flock members." Will Solace answered. "But I think that it's every one of them."

"I hate to say your right" Clarisse growled, "but you're making a lot of sense. We will also have to have everyone else patrolling the camp. The people can and will obviously try to get in again. We need to protect camp."

There was a little more discussion, but it was mostly figuring out what the cabins were going to do. But the most important questions had been answered. Eleven were going on the quest. It was the flock.

Percy, Piper, Annabeth, and I had been at the counsel. We needed to tell everyone else to get going. Fast.

We were packed and ready to go in an hour. I had an extra set of clothes, a packet of ambrosia squares and a container of nectar. "Everyone ready?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Got your stuff?"

"Yup."

"Let's go!" I called. We started to go out of camp Half-blood. Into the world. Where there was a monster trying to get in to camp.


	3. Monsters and Spies

Chapter 3 - Monsters and Spies

Piper POV

Of course, we had to run into a Hydra as we went outside the borders. And guess what Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel did as we met it? They flew up and chopped six of the Hydra's heads off with their new swords. So now, instead of the nine headed Hydra that we would've had originally, we had a fifteen headed monster. Everyone else darted up and hopped on back of one of the heads. "Is this the Hydra?" called out Max.

"YES!" I heard the new portion of the flock yell back angrily, including myself.

"SORRY!" she yelled back. "I didn't know!"

"Well, how do we stop it?" Fang asked.

"We burn it!" Jason said maniacally. "Then, we stab the heart. Thalia, would you please..."

"Yeah, just get off the freaking Hydra!" replied Thalia, annoyed. Everyone but Thalia flew up into the air, out of reach of the Hydra's acid. She flew up only so she wasn't touching the Hydra. She shocked it, using her newly acquired powers. The Hydra fell, limp. Percy dive bombed the Hydra and stuck Riptide into it's heart. The monster crumpled into yellow dust.

"Good riddance!" I said. I was annoyed that the quest had started off so poorly. This was not a good sign. We all speeded off to get to California. Going towards the enemy. I have no idea whether this was a smart choice or not, but it was all we had.

Little did I know, fighting the Hydra would be the least of my problems.

(LINE BREAK)

Max POV

It took three days to get to the cave by the school. It took us a little longer than usual, but there were some monsters on the way. First, we encountered more flyboys. Then, we met the Chimera.

The flyboys were easy to deal with. We just basically slashed them all to bits. The Chimera was a bit harder. Jason had to cut off the Chimera's head. Thank the gods one of us was fire proof. But I had thought that the Chimera was hard to deal with. Of course, it was just our luck that we ran into the mother of the lion headed, snake tailed goat demon.

Echidna wasn't happy when she saw us. I mean, we'd killed her son twice now, even though the Chimera was trying to kill us. The best part was she had three or four more snake women (_A/N Max means dracaenae, but she doesn't know that yet_) with her. It took us a good half an hour to beat her. In the end, I had counted up ten broken noses, eight sprained wrists, three broken arms, and I had a bruised rib. We all had cuts and bruises, but hey, that's what you'd expect if you were fighting the mother of all monsters.

(LINE BREAK)

It was funny when the old flock told the new members (as I've come to call Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Jason, and Piper) that we'd sleep in trees the first night. They complained a lot about how uncomfortable they were. I don't know how long it took for them to get to sleep, but I was exhausted, so I fell asleep about fifteen minutes after I had settled into my tree branch.

When we came to the cave, The old flock explained that this is where we'd set up base to spy on the school. We came up with a plan of action; two people would go spy on the school for three hours. Eight people would stay on a rotation. The other three would go into the closest city and see what we could do to get food. All of the old flock, plus Annabeth and Piper, would go spy on the school. Thalia, Jason, and Percy would go and hopefully get jobs or food or something.

Annabeth and I were a group for spy rotation. We had the six to nine shift. Each group had two shifts, each starting at the same time and ending at the same time, just one was in the morning and one was in the afternoon.

Nothing happened for the spy group for days. We expected to see more people milling about, guarding the place, but nobody saw anything. Fortunately, Percy, Jason, and Thalia had found jobs, so we did get to eat normal food instead of stealing it, or eating weird food. You would think it would be so boring, sitting around in a cave for days.

Well, monsters were still after us. Constantly, we had to fend off Flyboys, or the bird things. So mostly, people collapsed and fell asleep on the floor of the cave. I was glad to get within a hundred feet of the school. And that's saying something.

(LINE BREAK)

Jason POV

I had found a job in a fast food restaurant. It was gross, knowing how the food was made. I vowed to never have fast food again, unless times were really desperate.

Percy had found work in a small aquarium (big surprise) and Thalia had found work in an arcade. I was in hell, if I believed in it. And I was exceptionally happy. We worked, which was hard, but we fought monsters less, which was harder. We still got part of the action when we weren't at our jobs, but we weren't constantly pelted by the monsters and robots that came after the Spy group.

It was about a week after we came to California. I was ending my shift at the fast food place. I went out the "Emergencies Only" door that all the employees used. What you had to do without setting off the alarm was punch in the right six numbered pass code. When I got out, I looked aroung, making sure nobody was looking at me (so I could take off), and I saw Fang, Thalia, and Percy running towards me. I jogged up to them. "What's going on?" I asked, confused. Thalia, Percy, and I knew that if somebody came to get us out of our shifts, something was going on.

"We found the scientists. They're making robotic replicas of greek monsters." explained Fang. It was the longest sentence I'd heard him say. That couldn't be very good. When Fang talks like that, someone's been hurt.

"And, one more thing, Jason." continued Thalia sadly. "They have Piper."

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for not publishing in a bit... it's been a ****_long_**** week at school. And a serious case of writer's block. Anyways, hope you like the new chapter! And please please please review! And not just stuff like "I like your story" or "Update soon". Could I have some comments about what I can improve? Suggestions?**

**Thx! - Smarty**


	4. In the Compound

Chapter 4 - In the Compund

Piper POV

The flyboy things had attacked Nudge and I while we were spying. We both tried to use our charmspeak against them. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work. We had fought the flyboys - it was ridiculously hard, even for two demigod mutants. At first, we had gotten away. We had decided to fly away, back to the cave, but not in a straight line. We were going to go there in a confusing way with zig zags and backtracks, so that the flyboys wouldn't be able to follow us easily.

Nudge was flying ahead. She was flying within a group of hawks- trailing their every move, gracefully. I began to notice the features she had that most Aphrodite girls didn't. She was brave, she was willing to fight, and she was okay with being a little different. It was good to see that not all Aphrodite girls were idiots.

I then felt something brush against my shoulder. I whipped around and saw that it was only a very slow baby hawk. It looked like it had been injured at one point, because it had multiple new looking scars and an old one on it's wing. I cradled it in my hands and I tried to catch up with Nudge. I felt another soft brush against my shoulder. I turned to gently take the baby hawk's wing off of my shoulder, too. Except when I touched whatever had been on my back, I felt an electrical pulse. I cried out. I heard a pop! like a gunshot. Someone was carrying me, I knew, because I wasn't falling. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Nudge screaming and falling into the trees.

When I came to, I was in a dog crate in a pure white room. Not again! I was scared and feeling sweaty and claustrophobic. There were three other children in dog crates in the room that I was in. There were two little girls- about six or seven. They looked identical. They had dark skin and wavy, dark brown hair. There was also an older boy, about fifteen in age. He had coca brown skin, light brown-blonde hair, and piercing gray eyes. He looked at me quizzically, like he was analyzing my every move. He was definitely a child of Athena. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Piper." I replied, stretching my acing muscles. "Who are you?"

"I-I-I don't know. The scientists just call me kappa four. I don't feel like that's a name, especially not the 'four' part, but I guess you can call me Kappa." replied the kid. He was oblivious. I wasn't surprised. From what Max told me, she never went to school here.

"No, kid. Kappa is a greek letter. It's usually 'k', but it's sometimes 'c' in English. We need to get you a real name." I responded, thinking about how to give him a name. If he should decide, or if. My train of thought was cut off by the kid starting to speak.

"I've always wanted to be called Evan, or Xander, or Liam, or, anything that's a regular boy's name." He replied. "I actually really like Evan. Can I be called Evan?" he asked, getting excited.

"Sure, Evan. But don't expect the White coats to call you that. To them, you're just an experiment, a piece of junk that they could dispose of in a heartbeat. So when we get a chance, we'll escape... with those kids over there." I replied, pointing my finger at the two innocent little identical girls. "By the way, have they experimented on you yet?" I asked.

"Yeah. They, th-th-th-they gave me these." He turned around. Out from slashes in his shirt. Out poked two little wings. They were dark brown and blackish. He unfurled them completely. They looked like those on the little brown birds that floated in the water. What had Annabeth called them? They weren't ducks. Whatever. I'd figure it out later. "You probably think that I'm a freak, right?" He sighed.

"No, I don't. I have them, too." I showed him my white and pink wings, which had some blood on them.

"What? I though that the twins over there and I were the only winged people on Earth!" Evan exclaimed, looking extremely surprised.

"The twins have wings, too?" I whispered.

"Yes. They came in here about two months ago. They told me that their names are Abigail and Hannah, and they also told me that they were five. It was their birthday, the day they came in. They got their wings fie days later, around the same time that I got experimented on. They wanted to fix my eyesight. I couldn't really read anything they gave me. The words on the pages looked like they were swimming on the page. The surgery didn't help. But anyways, I heard their screams." Evan shuddered. "It's awful." he explained sadly.

"They will be scarred for life. The White coats just keep getting worse." I muttered. I was thinking about how they were engineering robotic Greek monsters and flyboys and turning all the natural light off.

"How could they get even worse than this?" inquired Evan.

"Umm, well, somehow, they made the world go dark. Like, it's pitch black outside. You can't see the sun or the moon or the stars. If it was winter, I'm almost sure I would have died from hypothermia by now." I informed Evan.

"Oh. Well, that's not good." he replied cautiously.

"Yeah. Talk about global warming!" I snickered. Evan laughed. I looked over and his eyes started to droop. Even though it was an awful day, I thought it wouldn't be able to sleep, I felt tired. "I think we should try to get some rest, Evan." I said sleepily.

"No! I'm not-" Evan yawned. "Sleepy. Umm, g'night, I guess." he laid down in his crate. I saw him doze off. I got to sleep quickly, too. And then I had a nightmare.


	5. Nightmare

Chapter 5 - Nightmare

Piper POV

_ Everybody was in a cage, in the room that I was in. They were all sleeping, looking peaceful._

_I knew that wasn't the case. I knew they would all be having nightmares, for one reason or another. I knew that they were in pain. I knew that they had tried to fight the White coats to get me out. I knew that they had failed._

_Jason woke up. "Jason!" I cried, glad to see him awake._

_"Why did you tell him!?" He asked._

_"Tell who what?" I replied._

_"Him." Jason pointed to the cage where Evan slept._

_"Evan is a nice kid. He grew up here all his life. For Hades' sake, he thought Kappa, a greek letter, was his name!" I screeched at Jason._

_"You cannot trust him." He whispered._

_"What? Why not?" I retorted._

_"He is not a mortal, Piper. You cannot trust him." Jason replied. Then he fell back asleep._

_"JASON!" I yelled. Jason stayed asleep. Percy and Thalia woke. So did Evan. Percy and Thalia looked at Evan weirdly._

_"You must die." They said in a monotone voice. Thalia raised her hands. Lightning crackled at her fingertips. Percy was concentrating on what I thought were water pipes. Percy made the water pipes explode, crashing the water on Evan. Thalia shot sparks and hit Evan's cage, which he was holding onto. I noticed that nothing happened, that he only blinked. Evan scowled._

_"Piper. You are so gullible. Prepare to die." Evan snorted. Then he started growing bat wings and his face was getting all shriveled up. I realized that Evan was one of the Furies. Thalia and Percy stared and stared. Then everyone woke up and started screaming. The Fury came down and swiped Jason first. Then Percy, then Thalia, then the rest. He (she?) was so loaded up, that by the time she got to me, she couldn't hold my dog crate. "You will not be spared, Piper McLean. You will not be spared." Everyone else just looked at me._

_"Save yourself, Piper. Save yourself." Jason whispered._

**A/N Hey guys, know this chapter was short, but I have a horrible case of Writer's Block. Anyways, I kinda wanted to focus on another crossover between Percy Jackson and Gallagher Girls. I should have that posted by next week.**

**If you have any ideas about this story, review or PM me! Review or PM me anyways! Critique hoped for!**

**-Smarty**


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